Babel Heaven-scraper

The first human government to emerge was established by a man called Nimrod.

Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.” And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city) (Gen 10:8-12 NKJV).

Nimrod was the most powerful strongman on the earth so he established a kingdom in Babel. This is the first mention of a kingdom in the Bible. Nimrod extended his kingdom to Nineveh. This makes Nimrod the grandfather of all the early kingdoms and empires on earth.

The name Nimrod comes from the expression “we will rebel”, so when the Bible refers to Nimrod “before the Lord” it means in opposition to the Lord. The first governments were started by a “rebel against God”. The fruit of this rebellion was the tower of Babel.

Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth" (Gen 11:4).

Heaven-scraper
Nimrod’s followers decided to construct a massive tower that would enlarge their reputation throughout the earth. Reading about their plans through modern eyes it all seems a bit stupid. Only crazy people would think that building a “too-big-finish tower” would enhance their political power.

However, something more serious was going on. If we read the story through a three-agent lens, we get a different perspective. The spiritual powers of evil were threatening a dangerous assault on the purposes of God.

The people of Babel planned two things:

• a tower that reaches to the heavens,
• a name for themselves (apart from God).

This plan was a serious rebellion against their creator.

• A “name” represents a person’s authority. The people of Babel intended to establish authority (name) for themselves apart from God. They would achieve this goal without God by attaching their political power to that of the spiritual powers of evil.

• A "tower" represents authority. This tower was an attempt by the people of Babel to extend their authority right up into the spiritual realms (heaven) by cooperating with the spiritual powers of evil. They wanted to expand the authority of their earthly empire into a spiritual empire. They believed that they had a chance to do it, and the spiritual powers of evil working with them believed that they could squeeze God of the spiritual realms in a reversal if the way that they had been pushed out by the holy angels (Rev 12:7-8).

This tower was a serious threat to God’s authority. The most powerful people on earth got together with the spiritual forces of evil in an attempt to wrest control of the heavenly realms from God. A gang of evil spirits that had been thrown down on earth, planned to use evil people on earth to regain their position in heaven. This was serious stuff.

God had no choice but to send a Protective Judgment to put the forces of evil back in their place. The evil was constrained by sending confusion of language that made combining for a common purpose more difficult.

So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city (Gen 11:8).